Contents

In contemporary Latin, the entity was called the marcha Orientalis ("Eastern march"), marchia Austriae, or Austrie marchionibus. The Old High German name Ostarrîchi first appeared on a famous deed of donation issued by Emperor Otto III at Bruchsal in November 996. The regione vulgari vocabulo Ostarrîchi, that is, "the region commonly called Ostarrîchi", probably only referred to some estates around the manor of Neuhofen an der Ybbs, nevertheless the term Ostarrîchi is linguistic ancestor of the German name for Austria, Österreich.

Later the march was also called the Margraviate of Austria or the Bavarian Eastern March to differentiate it from the Saxon Eastern March in the northeast. During the Anschluss period of 1938–45 the Nazi authorities tried to replace the term "Austria" with Ostmark, a German translation of marcha Orientalis that had become common in 19th-century German historiography.

The early margraviate was populated by a mix of Slavic and native Romano-Germanic peoples who were apparently speaking Rhaeto-Romance languages, remnants of which remain today in parts of northern Italy (Friulian and Ladin) and in Switzerland (Romansh). In the Austrian Alps some valleys retained their Rhaeto-Romance speakers until the 17th century.

In 955 King Otto I of Germany had started the reconquest with his victory at the 955 Battle of Lechfeld. The obscurity of the period from circa 900 until 976 leads some to posit that a Pannonian or Austrian march existed against the Magyars, alongside the other marches which had been incorporated into Bavaria by 952 (Carniola, Carinthia, Istria, and Verona).[1] However, much of (Lower) Pannonia was still conquered by the Magyars. In 976, during a general restructuring of Bavaria upon the insurrection of Duke Henry II the Wrangler, Otto's son and successor Emperor Otto II had a new marcha orientalis erected on the territory of the former Pannonian march. He appointed the Babenberg count Leopold the Illustrious from the House of Babenberg margrave in turn for his support. Leopold replaced one Burchard, whose status is not well known but may represent a continual margravial authority in the region during the interval 900–976.